Wellington City Council Consulted On Kill Zones For Cats On Council Reserves

A few days out from the council voting on unprecedented restrictions on the capital's Cats, it's come to light that the council has taken legal advice on setting up kill zones for all unidentified Cats on reserve land.

The information came to light in legal advice to the council from law firm DLA Piper, who were asked to assess whether the council can regulate Cats on council reserves.

DLA Piper stated: "Council do not have the power, under the Reserves Act, to require Cats on a reserve to be identifiable.

They do however, have recourse if Cats found on the reserve are not identifiable under the Reserves Act. Council could advertise this ability by stating that Cats are required to be easily identifiable and that if a Cat is not wearing a collar and/or have a microchip then a Cat found on a reserve may be seized and disposed of if there is no reputed owner.”

The council planning office states:

"Our formal definition of reserve land is public land set aside for recreational, ecological, landscape, cultural and/or historic purposes and generally managed under a reserve management plan prepared under Section 41 of the Reserves Act 1977. There is approximately 4000 hectares of land managed as reserve. Road frontage is often called "road" reserve but is not reserve as defined above.”

The council's agenda is quite clear from the legal advice it has been seeking. If this bylaw is passed, it will be open season on any Cats that just happen to wander onto council reserve land.

And should your family Cat lose it's collar or the microchip stops functioning, then the Cat can be trapped and killed.

The legal advice also proposes that Cat trapping and extermination could be carried out by "a person specifically authorised in writing by the Council".

It is clear that this leaves open the door for the council to delegate these Cat-extermination duties to anti-Cat extremists such as the Morgan Foundation and other amateur environmental groups currently in partnership with Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council, for example Polhill Restoration Trust which appears to be wholly funded by WCC, GWRC, and the Morgan Foundation.

Given the sad example of Teddy the Cat who was killed by park rangers in Auckland in March 2015 who had both a microchip and collar with name tag, we feel it's highly likely that entirely innocent and much loved Cats, including those who have identification will be killed as a result.

We're deeply concerned that the council has had this legal advice since February this year, yet has never disclosed it until now. Throughout the consultation period, the council never mentioned this hidden agenda, nor did it ask the people of Wellington what their thoughts might be on the deliberate targeting of family pets.

This sort of deliberate misinformation is completely unacceptable. Wellingtonians have a right to know that the council is intending to target their Cats, and the council has a responsibility to be honest about what it intends. We are therefore calling on the council to stop this travesty of process. One option is to re-open public consultation, this time with the council being open and honest about what it intends.

ENDS

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